Australian media outlet Mamamia is having a makeover, which will include the launch of a brand new influencer company.

The new firm is called Social Squad, and it'll be headed by venture capitalist Gareth Rose. Mamamia is also working on new advertising solutions, as well as having a website rebrand. 

Mamamia hosted an upfront event this week, at which the company's co-founder Jason Levigne commented on the state of the influencer market in Australia. Levigne describes influencer relations in Australia as "murky" and says that Social Squad can aim to put influencers in a better light.

“We saw the same thing that’s happening with influencer marketing that happened when digital marketing became more vogue in 2008. Back then, genuine measurement was starting to become more important but it wasn’t available so there were plenty of cowboys in the market who were building nonsensical network plays with large numbers that weren’t valuable,” Levigne said, speaking to AdNews.

“We’re obsessive on ROI for clients we understand transparency as the pressing issues keeping clients up. We recognise clients feel like they are getting something positive from influencers, but no one’s measuring it right and that's what we're going to do."

Aussie controversy 

Influencer marketing is under scrutiny in Australia for a number of reasons. An uncomfortable situation involving influencers promoting inappropriate products means that internet celebrities are no longer permitted to front goverment campaigns in the country.

The authenticity of influencers is under fire as it is, with companies like Unilever working to weed out the bad eggs. This move has led multiple brands to reevaluate their influencer strategy, or simply start handling their own relations rather than allocating it to third party agencies.